NASA Comp School @ Road Atlanta

Posted on 2015/09/21 by Chad

Note: This event originally took place on 5 June 2015. I’m a bit behind in my updates.

When I built the Spec E46, I intended to run it both in the BMW CCA Club Racing series and NASA racing, where the majority of other SE46s in my region were running. I had completed the BMW CCA race school back in January of 2014 at Texas World Speedway, which allowed me to run my first race at Barber with the CCA. Unfortunately that didn’t turn out so well and the car was laid up for serious repairs.

I had hoped that the NASA South East region would accept my BMW Club Racing license and allow me to run without attending their Competition School. Unfortunately they were not willing to do so for a Rookie license. I’m sure if I had multiple races under my belt it would have been fine. Since that wasn’t the case, I needed to get registered for their next available school. My luck was running even more thin when the next upcoming school was coming up in a hurry and I had no car ready to go. Unlike the BMW CCA school, which allows you to use your street car, NASA requires a fully prepped race car with current annual tech inspection. Waiting until my car was ready would have meant missing out on a good chunk of the season and having to attend the school at ViR with Mid Atlantic, a place I had never run.

I thought my luck had changed when a NASA-SE regular offered up his Scion FR-S for rent on the day of the Comp School. We agreed on a fair price, I signed up for the school, and off I went to Road Atlanta. It felt rather odd heading to the track with nothing in tow and only my driver gear in the truck. My father and I arrived late Thursday night to meet with the gentleman renting his car and get a test fit. I had already warned him that I was 6’2″, with much of my height in the torso, but he was confident that with the seat in the lowest position I would fit. Bad luck struck again; there was no way I would safely fit. My head was touching the roof cross bar, even scrunching down. It looked like I would be heading home sans certificate.

Before we gave up, I started making the rounds of the paddock, looking for anyone who might have a ride available. All the Spec Miatas were already claimed, not that it would be any easier of a fit. The regional director even tried to get me a Thunder Roadster ride, though that didn’t pan out (probably best for my own well being!) Then I remembered that a fellow CCA racer had previously offered up his K-Prepared E30 for rent. I got on the phone and tried to work out the logistics of getting the car from nearby Atlanta. Then I remembered; the car had to have a NASA annual tech sticker. Out of luck once more.

By this time the sun was dropping and folks were leaving the track to rest for the following race day. As a last ditch effort I text messaged a friend who was from the local area, just to see if he had any leads. He told me to standby while he checked on something. Perhaps this would be the solution. As it turns out, he was going to rent a Spec E30 the same weekend and planned to run it in practice on Friday. He checked with the owner of the car and came back to me, offering to give up his test day so I could complete the comp school. My luck had finally turned around.

Later on Thursday I tracked down the rental SE30’s owner and we picked up the car from a nearby shop. Even better news was that I fit just fine in the car, the seat being a larger size and also on sliders. We parked the car with the rest of the SE30’s and went to the hotel, finally able to relax and know that I had a chance to get this school over with.

The next morning started with a sprint which didn’t stop until the day was complete. See NASA essentially squeezes a two day comp school course into one day. So there is very little downtime between sessions and class. You are in the car, then directly to class, then right back out on track. I was even driving the car directly to the classroom, so that I could hop out and in. Having my father there as crew chief was a life saver. While I was in class, he was topping off the fuel, loosening the belts, and torquing the wheels.

The school itself went by without much drama. NASA does the school in conjunction with test n’ tune sessions, which provides extra traffic to negotiate, mostly much faster traffic at that. To me it felt as though the major focal point was ensuring drivers were comfortable in close proximity to other cars and obeyed flags. There was little discussion of race craft, as had been a key point during the CCA race school. Much of that can be chalked up to the school being on a accelerated timeline, giving very little time to really discuss the nuances of driving in a race.

Just like the CCA school, the day involved side-by-side drills, swapping places in corners, and ended with a mock race. Our first mock race was an inverted field and standing start. Apparently I was the fastest SE30, so I had the other E30s and SMs in front of me, with a gaggle of Mustangs, Corvettes, and a really fast GT-R behind me. I got a clean start, passing everyone in front by turn one and led up to T3, where a Corvette whizzed by. A full course yellow was thrown about midway though, and we got to practice a restart.

A “Fun Race” was set to conclude the day. I initially hadn’t planned to participate, as I was going to save tires/fuel and head back home that evening. That plan was squashed when I was informed the race was not optional and was a requirement for finishing the comp school. It was an hour long race, so I just planned to complete 50% of the leader’s laps and call it good. The start/finish stand marshal was kind enough to give a midway signal, and I pulled in unscathed and finished with the school.

I had never even driven a street E30, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. My M Coupe shares its rear suspension with an E30, so I was a bit worried it’d handle in the same manner (ie short wheelbase + lots of power + semi-trailing arms = never lift), but the SE30 was much more benign. The lack of power, tall gearing, and sufficient grip meant the car was very forgiving. I was nowhere close to pushing the limits with it (I certainly didn’t want to buy it) but still had a blast. The lack of power steering and soft suspension made it seem lethargic in comparison to my SE46, but I can still see why they are a fun class to race in.

All in all it was an enjoyable day, especially getting to drive something new and very different.

SpecE46 Wreck Repair

Posted on 2015/09/08 by Chad

After the Spec E46’s debut at Barber Motorsports Park, I was left with a crumpled and undriveable car. The initial visual inspection at the track showed that I’d be in need of the following:

Hood
Left Fender
Bumper
Left and Right headlights
Left control arm
left tie rod
Airbox
Left aluminum engine mount
Apex Wheel
Radiator core support

Once I had the car home, I immediately unloaded it directly from the trailer into the shop and up on jack stands. From there I started to dismantle the front end. With the hood, fender, and bumper off, I got a much better look at what lay ahead. I then found the following would need replaced:

Front left wheel housing
Front subframe
Left and right engine mounts
Steering rack
Power steering pump pulley
Radiator
Front bumper crash bar

The whole left front had been pushed to the right and rear, forcing the wheel well up into where the DME box and brake master cylinder/ABS/booster are located. Several welds had pulled apart, and I don’t think a simple frame pull would get it back to where it needed to be. So I opted to order brand new OEM sheet metal. BMW offers the entire wheel housing and frame horn as a replacement part, though it’s certainly a special order item.

The engine came out, which was in surprisingly good order, other than the torn Bimmerworld engine mounts and cracked aluminum mounts. I got lucky in that none of the bolts pulled from the block. The crash did manage to put a ding in the Y-pipe, but I decided to leave it alone.

The engine subframe was twisted at the engine mounts, so it went in the trash. I sourced one from a junk yard, as well as a used core support and crash bar. The subframe was cleaned up and a set of Turner reinforcements were welded on.

I completely cut away the original wheel well by drilling out all the factory spot welds, leaving the front left firewall completely bare. The new housing was squeezed into place, and leveled using tape measures and a plumb bob. I welded it back on using the factory spot weld locations. The interior of the transmission tunnel needed a patch plate where some original metal tore during removal.

The left control arm bushing had stripped the threads from the frame, so I ended up drilling it up a size and inserting a helicoil.

With the new metal final welded into place, I gave everything a good scuff with a 3M pad, followed by cleaning, then a coat of automotive primer. I then sealed up the gaps with some plain seam sealer before painting everything a matched 300 Alpine White and a coat of catalyzed clear.

Everything went back together as it did the first time. I did find that both frame horns slightly shifted (~1/8″) to the right when checking the frame for squareness. A little extra effort on panel gaps brought everything within factory spec and the car aligned properly as well. I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.

Note: While everything was apart, I took the opportunity to replace the brake master cylinder and booster. These weren’t damaged in the wreck but were original to the car (~220k miles).

[foogallery id=”7886″]

First SpecE46 Race: Barber Motorsports Park

Posted on 2015/08/17 by Chad

The time had finally come to put the Spec E46 race car to the test in wheel to wheel competition. I signed up for the May 2015 BMW CCA Club Racing event at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, AL. I had never driven the track, so there would certainly be a lot to take in.

If you haven’t been to Barber, you should really make a trip to visit it. It has to be the nicest race tracks in North America, with finely landscaped grounds, excellent facilities, and perhaps the greatest motorsports museums for the motorcycle and Lotus car enthusiast.

This event was put on by the BMW Car Club of America, so there were multiple run groups of DE in addition to the race sessions. The schedule called for three races, two on Saturday and one on Sunday. Two other SE46s were in attendance, so at least I would have some company in the class. The majority of the cars were I-prepared, with a smaller mix of Modified, SE36, and KP cars.

The car ran well during practice and qualifying, though I really didn’t have a good grasp of the track or the handling of the car. I had a few mental mistakes at various points, just not remembering where the track was going. Though it’s only 2.38 miles, the course has 15 turns, with a great variety to make things interesting.

Saturday Qualifying
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaxRQwBPFL4

I only ran three laps in qualifying. I had no idea what a good time was, or even really how to operate the lap timer on my MXL, so I figured no point in running more time off the tires. My time was a good bit off Damion Moses’, but enough to qualify second in class and 14/24 overall. BMWCCA club events don’t group cars by class, but by outright qualifying time. So I was sandwiched between a Super Modified and I-Prepared car.

The first race started well enough, the first few turns were without drama and I didn’t lose any positions. Then coming onto the front straight the cars pretty much went single file and relatively slow to make it through the hairpin-like turn 5. Right as I was about to hit the apex I caught a glimpse of something moving very quickly out of my left peripheral. I had nothing but grass and curbing to my left, so I knew something was wrong. It happened too fast to avoid, and I got hit hard in the front left.

The impact spun me off into the outside adjacent gravel trap. The car was still running, so I shut it down. After sitting for a bit, I cranked it again and attempted to get moving, but I was sunk up to the frame in gravel. I also had steam coming out of the engine, so better to just wait. The rest of the pack continued around for about three more laps under a full course caution (turns out another car crashed on the first lap.) They eventually black flagged the race and I was stuck waiting on the roll-back, who was tending to the other wreck. The car that hit me was able to be towed out and continued back to the pits under its own power.

Saturday Race Crash

(note: first perspective is from a car behind me, followed by my in-car)

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7vyRInVU5o

With the EMS personnel on scene, I got out to check over the damage. The hood was buckled, the fender crushed, the bumper knocked off, both headlights destroyed, the wheel cracked in several places, and after trying to turn the steering wheel I discovered that the left tie rod was also sheered.

Eventually we got the car loaded on the roll back and back to the paddock. There I discovered the damage was a bit worse than I initially thought. The engine mount arms were both cracked and separated, the lower control arm was twisted, the steering rack was shattered, the airbox was cracked, the power steering pump pulley cracked, and the core support was twisted. It was certainly nothing that could be repaired in the paddock, even if I had all the parts on hand.

Thankfully I had recently installed a winch on the trailer, so getting the damaged car loaded wasn’t too difficult. I stayed the night rather than driving back home in a bad mood and sore from the impact. The group of racers were all very considerate and sympathetic to my situation. And eventually the driver who hit me came over to apologize. I have to say he was very humble and sincere, and I know that this could have happened to any of us. I was lucky that he hit me where he did, rather then in the door, which could have been much more dangerous and damaging. Unfortunately his car didn’t fare so well. The whole right side was crushed in, pushing the door bars, main hoop, and rocker panel inward.

It was an unfortunate experience, made worse that it was my very first race in a recently completed car, but everyone walked away without any injuries, so I can be thankful for that.

DIY: Homemade Cooling Shirt System

Posted on 2015/07/17 by Chad

Driving a race car usually means driving a car with no air conditioner, no heat insulation in the cockpit, and the windows removed. Obviously this can make for a very toasty operating environment. Radiant heat from the engine, exhaust, and even track surface can quickly add 20-30F to the ambient outside air temperature. Pair this with racing in the southern United States, and just sitting in the car can become a health risk. I’ve had a close call with serious heat exhaustion in the past, driving my M3 at Texas World Speedway when the on track temps were near 110F. I swore that when I had a purpose-built race car that it would have every driver cooling aid I could fit.

The most common and certainly the most effective of these is the cooling shirt. Most folks just refer to them as “cool shirts”, but that’s an actual brand, so I’ll try to avoid calling it that. These systems have been around for sometime and are fairly common to club-level racing in the hot regions. It’s a very simple system, essentially cold water is circulated around tubes sewn into the driver’s shirt. The cold water is held in a cooler mounted in the car and the water is circulated using a 12V pump.

The vast majority of the parts used in the commercially available systems are actually just off the shelf items that anyone can purchase on their own. For example, the pump is just a 12V boat bilge pump. The only piece I didn’t make myself was the shirt itself. Some folks have made their own by simply sewing a length of tube into a plain t-shirt, which certainly helps save even more money. I decided to pick up F.A.S.T. Alpha shirt, which also has moisture wicking properties.

Here’s the parts list of the items I purchased, their retail cost, and supplier.

Qty	Item	Source	Total Cost
1	Weatherproof Low-Voltage DC Connector Kit, 2 Pole, 16-14 AWG 9171T32	McMaster-Carr	$7.71
2	Air and Water Quick-Disconnect Tube Coupling Through-Wall Socket with Valve, 1/4 Coupling, for 3/8″ Tube ID 5012K79*	McMaster-Carr	$39.66
2	Air and Water Quick-Disconnect Tube Coupling Barbed Plug with Valve,1/4 Coupling, for 5/16″Tube ID 5012K712*	McMaster-Carr	$14.68
2	Air and Water Quick-Disconnect Tube Coupling Barbed Socket with Valve,1/4 Coupling, for 5/16″Tube ID 5012K672*	McMaster-Carr	$18.60
1	Masterkleer PVC Tubing 5/16″ Id 7/16″ Od, 1/16″ Wall Thickness, 25 Ft. Length 5233K59	McMaster-Carr	$7.25
1	Single Pinch Stainless Steel Hose & Tube Clamp 13/32″ to 31/64″ Clamp Diameter Range, 9/32″Band Width 5435K28 – 25 pack	McMaster-Carr	$4.97
1	Durable Nylon Tight-Seal Barbed Tube Fitting Reducing Straight for 3/4″x 3/8″ Tube ID, White 5463K648 – 10 pack	McMaster-Carr	$7.40
1	Engel 13 Quart Dry Box Cooler UC 13	Austin Kayak	$43.99
1	3/4″ Clear PVC Hose – 1ft	Lowes	$1.00
1	3/8″ Clear PVC Hose – 1ft	Lowes	$1.00
1	500-600 GPH 12v Bilge Pump	Wal-Mart	$19.99
#	Tubing Neoprene Insulation and Cordura Cover	Hydation Tube Covers	TBD

*Different cooling shirts use different style connectors. Continue reading for more info on which type you need.

You’ll also need a few supplies, such as JB Weld and silicone to seal the fittings, zip ties to secure the hoses, and a setup to mount the cooler in the car. But in total, the homemade cooling shirt cooler cost roughly $175 once shipping is figured in. A much better proposition than the off-the-shelf models go for, using the same (or better) components.

Pump Installation

To start with, let’s mount the pump in the cooler. This is pretty straightforward, as most of these 12V bilge pumps are meant to be mounted directly to the bottom of the hull. The cartridge type I purchased (from Wal-Mart’s boating section) comes apart for mounting. Three simple screws are all that holds it in place. I drilled pilot holes first, then squirted silicone sealant in and around the holes prior to securing the base-plate. Make sure you use a silicone that is rated for submersion (many aren’t.)

Also take care to orient your pump so that the outlet hose is pointed to where you want the fittings to be. If I did this again I would mount the pump slightly closer to center (left of where it is located in the picture above) so that the twist out pump could be more easily removed.

Plumbing the Cooler

Now you must drill holes for the fittings. Part 5012K79 listed above is essentially a bulkhead fitting and barb on one side and a quick disconnect fitting on the other. The wall of the cooler is slightly too thick to allow for installation of the retaining nut on this fitting, so I drilled the hole to be as tight fitting on the barb as possible. I then sealed around it with some JB Plastic Weld (the putty kind.)

One of these fittings is simply a return port, so it can be left as is. The other one (it doesn’t matter which one) will be connected to the pump. The outlet of the pump (fairly standard sizing) is 3/4″, so a reducer is needed to size the hose down. This is where part 5463K648 comes in. It reduces 3/4″ down to 3/8″. I went to Lowes for a foot of 3/4″ and 3/8″ clear PVC hose, which you can find in the plumbing aisle for pretty cheap.

The photos above show the nearly finished product, pretty simple isn’t it? The last remaining step of modifications needed to the cooler are running the power and ground to the pump. The pump I purchased came with a long lead (~3ft), so I didn’t need to extend it at all. Once again, drill as small of a hole as possible to feed the two wires through the cooler’s wall. I drilled my holes up high, as to avoid prolong submersion which may lead to leaks. The wires were sealed off with silicone. ~~Note: I found that all the silicones had a difficult time adhering to the plastic of the cooler, I eventually coated all the holes with JB Weld Kwik Weld.~~

Update 20150722: I learned that the JB Kwik Weld does not like being submerged in water either. It stayed soft and easily peeled off with just a fingernail scrape. So I found some JB Marine Weld, designed to be used under water once cured. You can find this at Advanced Auto Parts stores. Again I’ve found that most adhesives and sealants have a tough time sticking to the plastic of the Engel cooler. I scuffed the area and cleaned it with alcohol. I’ll be sure to update if I find any issues with this product.

Once the wire was through the cooler wall, I secured it to the outside with a cable clamp riveted to the outer plastic skin (not all the way through.) To terminate the wires I used part 9171T32, which is a Weatherpack electrical connector. These connectors are fairly common, work well, and can be assembled with an inexpensive pair of crimpers. You certainly don’t want to permanently wire your cooler to the chassis, as it is much easier to simply take the cooler out for cleaning and filling.

Before I went much further I bench tested the cooler and my shirt by just hooking it up to a spare car battery and temporarily connecting the lines. It worked like a charm, even just pumping room temperature water (I had also let water sit in the cooler to insure there were no leaks.)

Water Tubing

With the cooler operating properly, it’s time to make the lines which will run to and from your cooling shirt. First let me note that different brand shirts use different quick disconnects. The F.A.S.T. brand shirts use the quick disconnects with the metal buttons, which is what I ordered and all the part numbers above are. The CoolShirt brand shirts use the disconnects with the plastic buttons. Make sure you know which type you have before ordering. McMaster-Carr offers both types of disconnects at roughly the same price. You can even make your own simple patch tube, should you have multiple driver’s with different shirt types.

Metal (F.A.S.T.) on left, Plastic (Coolshirt) on right

Decide where you want to place your cooler so that you can determine the length your hoses need to be. The most popular spots are the passenger seat area and the trunk. I placed mine in the spare tire well, as I like the option of being able to run a passenger seat. This should also balance out some of the weight loss effects of removing so many items from the rear of the car.

Once you have that figured out, you can run a tape measure or just temporarily run your uncut water hose to see just how much you need. Remember to leave a bit of slack at the driver’s end to allow for connecting/disconnecting the lines once buckled in. Satisfied with the length of hose and routing the hose would take, I then trimmed the 5/16″ ID PVC tube. Note: Coolshirt brand seems to use 1/4″ tube, while F.A.S.T. uses 5/16″ ID. Just make sure you match your connector barbs and hose size.

Tube Insulation

Before installing the quick disconnects on the tubing, you must install the insulation. At first I planned on using the generic dark gray foam rubber pipe insulation, which is available from McMaster-Carr for cheap. After trying it out, I decided I wanted a cleaner, more finished look, and something less bulky. Unfortunately it was impossible to find the supplier who provides the insulation for the store brand cooling shirt systems, seems you must purchase their $100+ hose to get it. That’s when I contacted Hydration Tube Covers to see what they could do. They were very helpful and had done drink system covers for race cars in the past.

Hydration Tube Covers was able to send me four sections of 4 foot neoprene covers, fitted perfectly to the 7/16″ OD of the tube. These were slid over the PVC tube by hand, working on in a slinky like fashion. Once both lines (supply & return) were covered, a protective Cordura wrap was placed over them using a Velcro seam. The end result is a well insulated and protected set of cold water tube that looks like a true race car part. These covers were custom sized, so price will vary according to your application, but I guarantee you will save a lot of money over the name brand cooling shirt offerings. Contact Brandon at HydrationTubeCovers.com for more details.

Update: HydrationTubeCovers.com has updated their website with a page dedicated to racing applications, check it out here: http://www.hydrationtubecovers.com/pages/race-car-air-and-hydration-insulation

Finally the tubes were terminated using the remaining quick disconnects with male ends on the cooler side and female ends on the shirt side. I used the crimp connectors (part #5435K28) to secure them in place. I wouldn’t recommend using screw clamps, as they can easily cut your hand when trying to connect or disconnect from the car.

So how well does it work? Extremely well, that’s how! I’ve used it at Barber Motorsports Park in May, Carolina Motorsports Park in June and July, and all I have to say is that sitting inside the race car on a blistering asphalt grid was just as comfortable as sitting inside an air conditioned car. The cooling effect is immediate, it almost feels as though cold water were pouring over you. Heck, after a session I didn’t want to get out of the car because I knew I would immediately be hot. The 13qt system was plenty for a sprint race format (~30 mins). I don’t know how much longer it would be good for, but you could always opt for the 19qt Engel dry box for enduros.

Mounting

What about mounting the cooler? Since this is going to be car specific, I left this until the end. As I mentioned previously, I mounted my cooler in the spare tire well. There are off-the-shelf mounting plates available from the well known companies that produce cooling shirt systems, but I wanted something tailored to my setup. I wanted the cooler mounted as close to the front of the spare tire well as possible, as I had to have space for my differential cooler and also reduce the polar moment of having extra weight out back.

I used some plain aluminum right angle stock, riveted to the floor on three sides of the cooler. I cut a slit on the left and right pieces to allow a ratchet strap to pass through, which was also riveted to the floor. To keep the cooler from tipping forward under hard braking I bent a piece of flat stock aluminum into a brace, which was also riveted to the spare tire well and a cushioning strip of silicone was added. A simple ratchet strap (the smallest I could find) is used to secure the entire cooler firmly to the floor.

Note: In the photo above and left, you’ll see that I originally used a cam-lock style strap to secure the cooler. While this strap was easy to tighten and release, it also wasn’t as secure as a ratchet style strap. I found that after a session on track, the cam strap would slightly loosen and the cooler could rock fore and aft. I changed to a ratchet strap, which has been problem free since.

Electrical Control

So what about electrically controlling the pump? The simplest solution is a plain single pole switch to turn it on or off. Some folks have asked about a speed control. First of all, these pumps are not designed for variable speed. Reducing the power will slow the pump, but it wouldn’t take much reduction before it simply stops spinning. You risk damaging the pump and you won’t really achieve the results you are after anyways. If you want to control the amount of cooling, the best method is a timer. A few of the cooling system manufacturers offer these under their own brand, when all they really are is live well aeration timers.

You can find these fairly easily from any fishing or boating supply store, online or brick and mortar. These are simple to wire into your system, with just a 12v supply, output, and ground. When set to minimum time, the pump will run near continuously for maximum cooling. There are several different types, some have set delays, some are infinitely variable. The type I purchased allows you to vary the delay (or off time) from 2 second to 5 minutes and anywhere in between.

I mounted the timer on my switch panel, inline with a standard on/off switch. This way I can find a setting that works well for the day, set it and forget it while using the on/off switch to simply cut it off when not needed.

Spec E46 First Shakedown

Posted on 2015/07/16 by Chad

Before a race car turns a wheel in anger, it really should be put through its paces in a test or shakedown drive. Since this car isn’t street legal and you could never truly test in on public roads, you need to schedule some track time. Fortunately I’m only an hour away from Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP) in Kershaw, SC. They even have their own track day organizer, Turn One, that has multiple events a month, making it fairly easy to get track time.

After alignment, I loaded up the car on the trailer and headed for CMP to see how all my work handled. It was a weekday event, so the track was fairly empty, great for some testing and tuning. Just like any track day event, the car went through a short tech inspection. Normally this wouldn’t be necessary on a race car, but I hadn’t received an annual tech inspection yet.

The first session was just a an exploratory lap, since I had never driven this track before. The tires were also fresh sticker and we were receiving some light rain, so it was a bit slippery but grip gradually came in. That said, CMP is a very slick track, nowhere near as grippy as NOLA, COTA, or Road Atlanta. It reminded me a lot of Motorsports Ranch Cresson, which is very old pavement and very slick in light rain.

Towards the end of my first session I was black flagged, which was odd because I had no off track excursions and there were only 2 other cars on track. I pulled into the pit lane and up to the pit exit marshal who told me several corner stations were hearing a loud metallic screeching sound from my car. He did a quick walk around of the car and noticed a lot of aluminum shavings on the rear left wheel…. great.

I pulled off the pit lane, headed back to the garage to see what had happened. Turns out I picked up a rock, which became jammed between the caliper and wheel. It then worked just like a lathe, cutting a 1mm deep groove around the inside of the wheel. My guess is that I picked it up during the tech inspection, as the tech shed and weigh station is off a gravel road (terrible layout.)

I pulled the wheel and gave it a good inspection, even called the friendly folks at Phil’s Tire Service to see what they had to say. I forwarded them some photos, which they in turn sent on to Apex Wheels. After a close inspection, I determined it was reasonably safe to continue on for the day. I took it a little more carefully, avoiding the curbing as much as I could.

The car continued to run well throughout the remaining sessions. Temps were within safe margins and the engine felt decently strong. I knew the alignment could use a bit more dialing in, and a corner balance was definitely in order. It was certainly nice to finally be in a true race car with a proper race seat and harness, making it much less physically demanding to drive the car while also easier to feel what the chassis was doing under me.

Then towards the end of the fourth and final session I suddenly lost power steering. It was a sudden stoppage, like I had experience in my E36 when it popped a line at Road Atlanta. I pulled back into the paddock to check what happened. A quick glance under the power steering reservoir cap revealed the telltale signs of a ruined pump, as it was sparkling with a metallic sheen. And so ended my test day.

Once back home I pulled the power steering pump to discover the pulley shaft was completely disconnected from the pump and free spinning. No doubt this was a design function, a break-away shaft much like those found on the air turbine starters on jet engines. I further disassembled the pump to discover the vanes which slide in and out of slots where dislodged and had jammed up the pump. My guess is that this was the original pump and at 220k miles it had just had enough.

All in all, not a terrible first run of the car. It showed its weak points, and that is the point of testing after all.

Eat, Sleep, Tinker.

No, it's not done yet…

NASA Comp School @ Road Atlanta

SpecE46 Wreck Repair

First SpecE46 Race: Barber Motorsports Park